Skip to main content

House hunting for first-time homebuyers: Is there a right way?





House hunting for first-time homebuyers: is there a right way?
A lot of buyers, especially first-timers, worry about whether or not they’re going about their home search the right way.
On the one hand, buyers fret that if they find their "dream home" too early, they might be missing out on something better. But, on the other, if the process takes a while, they worry that they’ll never find a home that works for them. The FOMO is real.
Keep reading to find out if you’re on track with your home search and what you should do if you find that you need to go back to the drawing board.

How many homes should you see?

Honestly, that depends. While we understand the impulse to try and rely on hard-and-fast statistics, homebuying is a truly personal experience rather than a science.
Trust your intuition. You know your needs, likes, and dislikes better than anyone else. You’ll know when you’ve landed on the property that makes the most sense for you to call home.
That said, though, there are a few things you can do to help speed your search along:
If you’ve been looking for a while and haven’t really found anything that meets your needs, it might be time to redefine search criteria. Sit down and take some time to think about which features you really need to have in your new home versus which are more nice-to-have, wishlist items.

Narrowing your search

Sometimes, narrowing search criteria can get tricky. If you’re unsure of where to start, try using the following as a starting point.
Neighborhoods
Focusing in on a particular area is one of the easiest ways to refine your search. You can start by doing research into different neighborhoods by you. Think about what you commute to work will look like, if the area has amenities that you enjoy, the quality of the school district, and home values.
With that in mind, though, you getting too hung up on a particular zip code can also limit your criteria. The key is keep an ideal location in mind while still staying open to possibility.
Bedrooms & bathrooms
When searching for a house, you should have a firm idea of how many bedrooms and bathrooms you’re after. Whether you’re just looking to accommodate yourself and the occasional guest, are thinking about starting a family in the near future, or want the option to convert a spare bedroom into an office, this information will surely help narrow your search.
We advise against compromising on this feature because, while it is possible to put an addition on later, doing so takes a substantial amount of time and effort. More often than not, homeowners find that they would rather put their home on the market than go through the hassle of trying to renovate it to fit their changing needs.
Sale price
This is the big one. Once you have the above two details settled, it’s time to narrow your search results further to only those homes that you can truly afford. If you’ve already applied for a pre-approval, that number can be a good place to start. However, remember that a pre-approval shows the maximum amount that you can ask for in a loan. You may not want to borrow up to that amount once you factor in the rest of your monthly expenses.
To find a more comfortable sale price, we recommend using a mortgage calculator to get a sense of what your monthly payment could look like at various loan amounts and interest rates. Then, once you’ve landed on a number that works for you, try plugging that into your monthly budget to get a sense of how the payment will feel in addition to your other costs.

Now what?

The good news is that once you’ve narrowed your search down, your pool of available properties will likely be much smaller than it was before - and much more targeted to meet your needs. From here, your search will be about zeroing in on your perfect match on the basis of which property was the best fit for your personal tates.
You’ll know when a property feels like it could become home versus when you’d be trying to make the best of an imperfect situation. Keep hunting until you find the former.


Comments

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

Assured returns from stock markets?

Stocks (and hence mutual funds) are often sold as something that give "assured" long term returns over a period of time. While this has been true for most of the times, and all time if we consider a long enough time horizon in India's recent history but is this always true? Can it be possible that stock markets can give lesser, say 10% returns over next 10 years? Or 5 percent annual returns? Or, taking inspiration from Nicholas Taleb, a black swan event happens and your end up barely recovering 80 percent of your principal amount (i.e. 20 percent loss) -   Theoretically yes.  Hopefully no.  I am not a predictor of future, nor are thousands others who claim to have more than 1000% percent surety of future events. So, if you are contemplating taking a personal loan @ 12% for some financial need and want to be invested in a mutual fund for "assured" 12 / 15/ 18/ 25 percent returns, maybe you need to rethink. If you want to borrow money @ 12% just to inv...
4 comments
Read more

What's the purpose of investing?

"Investment" - This word is much used and often much abused one. One keeps on hearing this almost all the time be it in office or catching up with friends or attending a family functions - almost everywhere. More so when we are fed with lot of information about how one needs to make money work to get more money. However, for a lot of people, the clarity on one question is often lacking - What is the purpose of investing? And even if one knows his/ her purpose of investing, it is often not implemented in real life. For instance, purpose of one's investments may be having sufficient funds in times of need. Yet they may opt for a personal loan when faced with pressing need for money. Based upon my observations, below are some of the most common purpose of investments (in no particular order) I invest because there is some sufficient funds lying with me and I can get great returns. I am investing for some specific goal - buying a house, education of kids, m...
1 comment
Read more

Saving & investing money versus living life king size

Should you save money or should you live life king size and enjoy your life - is one of the perennial question about people who are interested in doing a bit of financial planning. (Of course, the question doesn't arise if you don't do financial planning at all - you'll, in all probability chose the latter). Taking a step back, one needs to understand what is meant by "living life king size" in the above? Rather than going into an attempt to give a standard definition, I'll try to pose scenarios - Do you always want the latest model of iPhone? And the iPad? And you are willing to consider buying an Apple Watch also? Your car needs an upgrade every few years? From an Alto to i10 to Honda City to (hopefully!) CRV in few years. For you affordability of things means easy access to EMIs? You want to keep upgrading something or the other in your house every few months - One year it may be the cupboards, the other year it may be the sofas, and the next year...
2 comments
Read more

The story behind credit card debts & personal loans

Any one with even an iota of interest in personal finance & its workings would probably know that credit card debts and personal loans are usually the worst kinds of debt traps that you can fall into. Yet many people fall into that trap again and again. Many people do come out of it eventually but some don't & this becomes a part of their "lifestyle". That you are eventually paying much more than you need to, if you default on credit card payments intentionally or unintentionally (probably @ 36 % per annum or something similar) or take a personal loan (say, @ 12% per annum or so) is not hard to fathom. However behind these numbers, there may be even a deeper story - that usually that of not having control over expenses or not having created a buffer amount. While there may be some pressing need like unplanned or recurring medical expenses which fuels sudden demand of money or an unexpected job loss, in many other cases this need may be fueled by lack of plani...
12 comments
Read more

Financial tips for a 25 year old

Originally published at  BeingfinWise __ If you are 25 year old, there is a good likelihood that you would have started working or are likely to start soon. And hopefully start(ed) managing your own finances. So, what do you do next? The good news is that having a profession can soon lead to cash flows which perhaps wouldn't have seen in your student days. And that can be empowering in many ways. The bad news is that, if you are reckless with spending money, it can soon lead to a downward financial spiral. Managing your finances well can be a good first step towards a healthy financial life. And it starts with small steps.
Post a Comment
Read more